After covering some popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offered by BMO Global Asset Management, now we are taking a look at another giant fund manager in Canada, Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. or simply, Vanguard. The US branch of Vanguard boasts about 80 ETFs and the Canadian arm manages about 37 ETFs. In this article, we will focus on Vanguard All-Equity ETF; ticker symbol VEQT, listed in the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

Vanguard came into Canada in 2011 and has been a leader in keeping investment costs lower than its peers. Since then, it has also grown to be one of the key players in the investment front in Canada with a sizable collection of ETFs and mutual funds. Vanguard Group is one of the largest investment firms in the world with over $9.1 trillion assets under management and over 30 million clients worldwide.

Vanguard All-Equity ETF (VEQT) is similar to Vanguard’s other funds such as VBAL and VGRO in the sense that all these ETFs have the primary objective of providing a long-term capital appreciation for their investors. However, a key difference of VEQT is that it only invests in equity assets such as company stocks. The other ETFs mentions here combine equity investments with bonds and other short-term investments to mitigate the risk of putting ‘all the eggs in one basket.’

To achieve its objectives, VEQT invests in some of the strongest companies in the world. These are held within VEQT indirectly, meaning that VEQT holds other ETFs of Vanguard that own these companies. This helps keep the management fees to a minimum and also massively diversifies its holdings.

According to Vanguard, VEQT has an objective to;

provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in equity securities.

VEQT pays an annual dividend to its investors who are not dependent on incomes from their investments.

Quick Facts	VEQT.TO
Fund inception date	January 29, 2019
Net Assets (Sept 30, 2021)	$1.4 billion
Exchange	Toronto Stock Exchange
Annualized distributions yield	1.32%
Distribution frequency	Annual
Management expense ratio	0.24%
Account eligibility	TSFA/RRSP/RESP/RRIF/DPSP

VEQT is one of the most popular ETFs held by Vanguard, as you can see from the $1 billion+ investments made in the fund as of now. However, the fund has been live for less than three years. This leaves us in a doubtful position as to its true growth potential. Three years is very insignificant in the timeline of a long-term growth portfolio.

The problem with the lack of a track record is that it becomes very difficult to evaluate the fund’s risk and volatility. VEQT is just shy of three years of history for Vanguard to provide their official evaluation. However, based on what we can see from its performance to date, holdings, and objective, we can assume a Low-Medium risk for VEQT ETF.

Vanguard All-Equity ETF (VEQT) Holdings

As of this article, Vanguard All-Equity ETF holds only 4 underlying ETFs. These 4 ETFs are also owned and managed by Vanguard and have a broader objective of capital appreciation as well. However, these four ETFs are used to maximize diversification.

Holding Name	Weightage
U.S. Total Market Index ETF	42.55%
FTSE Canada All Cap Index ETF	29.81%
FTSE Developed All Cap ex North America Index ETF	20.10%
FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap Index ETF	7.53%

Vanguard boasts that these 4 ETFs actually hold over 13,330 individual stocks within them. This is a very high level of diversification among companies.

This diversification also gives your funds access to 79% large-cap companies and about 18% of small-medium-cap companies.

Around 43% of the assets are allocated within the United States, followed by 30% in Canada, and about 5% in emerging markets. While North America provides strength and stability, the emerging markets give the potential for accelerated growth.

The two leading sectors within VEQT are financials and technology, with 20% each. These are followed by industrial and consumer discretionary, with 12.6% each. Surprisingly, telecommunications only make up about 3.7% of VEQT.

VEQT holds investments in major companies such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, Google, Nestle, Shopify, and so on. There are all companies that pose stability and growth opportunities.

Vanguard All-Equity ETF (VEQT) Performance

As mentioned before, VEQT has been in existence for less than three years, which is very little time for a long-term growth fund. Lack of a considerable timeframe makes it difficult to assess if the fluctuations in the fund are due to its growth or temporary market impacts.

Whatever the case may be, VEQT has seen some impressive growth in the last three years. The fund has grown by 23.96% over its lifetime. An investment of $10,000 in 2019 would have turned into $12, 396 by end of 2021.

Is VEQT ETF for You?

For anyone looking for long-term capital appreciation, VEQT is a very lucrative investment opportunity. The recent boom in the tech sector keeps largely boosting these underlying ETFs’ performance. If you have the patience to set aside your money for 10+ years, VEQT can be a definite winner for your money.

Check out the latest information about the fund on Vanguard.

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Disclosure: Any information given in this article is not to be construed as investment advice. You must do your own research before investing any money in the stock market. All investments carry inherent risks even with the possibility of losing all your money.